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Friday, February 20, 2015

Venus, Mars and Moon Triple Conjunction

Weather permitting, observers in Israel will have the opporunity to see a beautiful triple conjunction of Venus, Mars and the new crescent moon of Adar on Friday evening, February 20, at dusk. The three celestical bodies will then be within half a degree of each other in the western sky. Half a degree is the diameter of the full moon in the sky. Such close approaches make for very memorable and beautiful displays. Of course, these celestial bodies only appear close together as they align in our line of sight in the sky. The moon is about 230,000 miles away, Mars about 142 million miles away, while Venus is 67 million miles away.

The next night, Saturday February 21, the crescent moon will have moved to the upper left of Venus and Mars, but the two planets will remain impressively close together for the rest of the month. See if you can distinguish them by color. Venus is creamy white, Mars a pale red.

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Why your next star gazing tour should be in Mitzpe Ramon

"A full appreciation of the universe cannot come without developing the skills to find things in the sky and understanding how the sky works. This knowledge comes only by spending time under the stars with star maps in hand." -- Terence Dickinson and Alan Dyer, The Backyard Astronomer's Guide

Current Solar System

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Observing Conditions

The number of clear nights (zero cloudiness) is about 170 a year. The number of useful nights is about 240. The best season, when practically no clouds are observed, is June to August, while the highest chance for clouds are in the period January to April. Winds are usually moderate mainly from North-East and North. Storm wind velocities (greater than 40 km/h) occur, but rarely. The wind speed tends to decrease during the night. Temperature gradients are small and fairly moderate. The average relative humidity is quite high with a tendency to decline during the night from April to August.

The average seeing is about 2-3 seconds of arc. A few good nights have seeing of 1" or less while some show seeing larger than 5".